Sunday 15 March 2009 20.05 EDT
First published on Sunday 15 March 2009 20.05 EDT

The clocks will have gone forward and the grass will be growing properly again by the time Reading are next at home in four weeks' time, and Steve Coppell is quite happy about both of those things.

Nine games to go with six of them on the road suit the manager after a week that saw Reading take one point from six on the threadbare, muddy pitch they share with London Irish rugby team and as a consequence slip seven points behind Birmingham in second place.

Coppell refused to use the surface as an excuse for Reading's third defeat in four home games but he was honest enough to highlight the differences with early season. "It's the same for both sides but when you play on a pitch every two weeks you're aware of its bobbliness," he said.

"I watched a couple of videos of us playing earlier in the season and we pinged the ball because there was like a hover-cushion on the surface but now it bobbles, so it's slow getting there and when it gets there, you've got to control it. If you're turning up and playing on it once every six months, you cope with it .

"The last thing I wanted this week was two home games one after the other," he added. "We are not a force at home in this run and from February onwards we've been less than average."

Ipswich's manager, Jim Magilton, has had two away games in a row and taken four points from trips to Wolves and Reading without conceding a goal but he still feels they are the teams who will be automatically promoted and is pointing his players towards the play-offs. One of those will be the forward Giovani dos Santos, who arrived on loan from Spurs and was given 20 minutes at the end.

"John Gorman [assistant manager] made a phone call and we asked was there anyone who needed games. Giovani did and it happened really quick. It's a real coup for us," Magilton said.

Coppell started two of his own loanees, Dave Kitson and Glen Little, who arrived from Stoke and Portsmouth respectively last week, and they were joined by the recalled Marcus Hahnemann. However, they never looked like scoring. It fell to Jon Stead to hook in Tommy Miller's cross to give Ipswich the lead.

Coppell, in his 999th game as a manager, admitted his side were so bereft of form he had no idea what his best team was and this morning finds himself ­preparing to visit Doncaster tomorrow to meet a side he feels are playing the "best in this league since Christmas". On the plus side Rovers play on grass.